New Year's Resolutions

I decided several years ago that I was not making any more New Year's Resolutions. I cannot think of a single "worthy" resolution that I have kept for any length of time. Plus, I believe that if there is something about yourself you wish to change, you should not wait to change it.

However, I amended that resolution (ha!) later. I decided I could make one as long as it does not involve losing weight, exercising, or being organized. One year my goal was to get to bed every night before 10:00. THAT was a resolution that was easy to keep (back then it was, anyway - these days, not so much).

This year, my resolution can be summed in one word... read. This is going to be the year of the books. Now, I read quite a bit now, but it tends to all be children's books. Children's books are wonderful and fun, but I'm feeling the need to stretch myself.

So, I will be doing more reading for myself this year. Some of these books will stretch my mind mentally and spiritually and I will be a better person for having read them. Some of them will be pure fluff and mind candy, and that's okay. I will be reading... for me. And I will enjoy it.

Christmas Review

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year. We most definitely did.

I am now in recovery mode - trying to get everything cleaned up and organized after two weeks of fun. In fact, that is my goal for the time before we start school back up on the 7th. I have big plans for reorganization of some storage areas in our home.

Here's a quick overview of our Christmas this year.

Wanna See What I Made?

I get together with a group of friends once a month to scrapbook. We rotate homes and work on a layout from a kit put together by our Close to My Heart rep. Since we use her stamps and ink pads, it can be difficult to put them together at home if we missed a month. So, December was our month to "catch up" on any layouts we may have missed.

We went to Sandy's house and had a yummy lunch, then got to work. I chose to work on non-scrapbook projects that she had showed us in the past. I originally thought I would give them as gifts, but have decided to keep them for myself. I will, however, make them as gifts in the future.

We are going to hang this in the kitchen. (sorry for the glare spot)


The following is not actually finished yet, but I think they still look cute. They need to have another layer of decoupage, then I'm going to add ribbon and tags and other what-nots. (If you click on the picture, you can see it enlarged, but please don't. If you do, you'll see the dust that I thought would not show up in the photo. I was just so wrong about that.)

My picture looks all curvy, but I'm not sure why. Must be all that dust. :)


Aren't they purty? Merry Christmas to me!

Last Day to Vote!

I meant to post this reminder a couple of days ago, but then I got sick and, well, you know how it goes.

Go vote!! Now!! Vote!!

Today is the last day. Go!

(all links take you to the same place - here!)

A Dose of Christmas Realism

I love Christmas stockings. Love. Them. When I was a child, I would wake up on Christmas morning at dark-thirty and go to the den and check out the Christmas tree with all its presents underneath. I would always pull everything out of my stocking and see what was in there. There was never anything big, but I just loved it.

Since I married, I have wanted to make us beautiful, cross-stitch stockings. It hasn't happened. I have started the things more times than I can count and never gotten more than an inch or so done. And, since my children are rapidly aging (good grief, why can't they just slow down?! - but that's a whole other post), I've finally become realistic and admitted it's not going to happen.

So, yesterday, I ordered these. They are lovely, and just what I wanted. And, they only took me about 30 minutes to order, as opposed to months and months of painstaking, time-consuming, labor. And, hey!, you save $2.50 per stocking when you order three or more, so I saved money, too!

Now, off to shop for stocking stuffers...

P.S. I found out a couple of days ago that Robert also gets up very early Christmas morning and looks at everything in his stocking. Now, how can I possible be mad about that? LOL

12 Days of Christmas

I found this through TeacherBritt. It's great!

Winter Art Kit from Hearts and Trees

I've talked in the past about purchasing the Fall art kit from Hearts and Trees. We had a great time with it and I've been looking forward to the winter kit. (we did not finish all the fall projects, so I have things to save for next fall or fill "I'm bored!" days - yea!)

Well, the Winter Kit is now available! There are some great projects, including a fleece hat and a winter nature study lapbook. Those are just a couple of the projects available.

If you pre-order by December 7th, you are guaranteed a kit. After that, it's while-supplies-last. She's already had to increase her estimate, so I don't expect them to last long after the 7th.

You can find all the details here.

(BTW, I get nothing for recommending these kits. I'm just a very satisfied customer!)

In Which I Say the Word "Cute" Way Too Many Times

Ruthie has beautiful hair. It's thick, soft, and wavy. And, when the slightest bit of humidity hits, really, really... big. She has a very hard time caring for it. It always has tangles underneath, which doesn't help the "bigness" of it. She has wanted to cut it for quite awhile, but decided to wait for it to be long enough for Locks of Love.

Last week we made a haircut appointment for today and she decided it was THE DAY.

I took some pictures of the whole event.

Before... (Ironically, her hair was laying smooth and beautiful today.)



In the chair...


Notice 4 different ponytails. Lisa, who cuts our hair, said it was still hard to get the scissors through it. Like I said, thick hair.

The cutting begins...


And the final result (after being washed and cut properly)


Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute! I just love it! And, really, who wouldn't love to have wash-and-go hair?

And a picture at home, after it's dried, with her holding the cut hair.


Can I say it one more time?

Cute!

Remember to Vote!

Voting has started over at the Homeschool Blog Awards. Voting ends December 15th.

Weekly Report - November 12-30

I haven't done a weekly report for a few weeks, so I'm covering everything we've done during that time. Last week was very light because of Thanksgiving.

GRAMMAR

CLE Language Arts arrived and we have started. We just finished the first quiz and it's going pretty well.

READING

Lots and lots of books about the middle ages were read. We have studied castles and knights the last couple of weeks and the kids are really enjoying it. They've been disinterested in the middle ages up to this point.

Ruth is also reading the Chronicles of Narnia. She read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe previously, but the others shown have been within the past couple of weeks. Robert has finally finished Lad: A Dog. I asked him if he finally liked it at the end, but he said that he's liked it since the beginning. So why did it take him a full month to finish the book?!

HISTORY

We read about William the Conqueror this week. I wanted to share Robert's notebook page. He is learning chess now, and since it had its beginning in the middle ages, his picture is a chess "battle scene". (We are working on the writing portion. Robert gives very good oral narrations, but struggles with written .)

MEMORY

We're working on the poem The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I really like this poem, and the kids recognized the first couple of lines from a Foxtrot cartoon. Now, how's that for cultural relevance? LOL (please excuse how crooked this is - I just could not get it to scan straight)

SCIENCE

It's taken awhile, but we've finally finished up our sea turtles chapter. I thought we'd never get those last things finished! Kids made sea turtles and sea snakes for the ocean box. I promise the next pictures will show them actually in the box!

BIBLE

I am putting aside our regular Bible curriculum for a study of Christmas. We are doing a Jesse tree for the first time. In an effort to keep it simple (to make sure it gets done!) and inexpensive, we are using the scriptures and ornaments found here. I also found an excellent overview of Jesse trees here.

Coming up:

We will return to our study of Latin and do better with our composer and picture study. :)

Tracking Assignments

Keeping track of daily assignments has always been a struggle. I've tried several different methods - handwritten, daily assignment sheets, weekly assignment sheets, pre-printed, blank sheets with handwritten assignments. None of them work, mainly because we can't keep track of the sheets of paper and my children forget to check what has yet to be done.

So, I went back to something I used last year.


I have all our subjects listed, with columns for each child, written with wet-erase markers. Assignments are written by me daily with dry-erase markers. It is easy and impossible to misplace. :) (Please note that every single assignment from this chart is done. That hasn't happened since then, but I wanted to make sure you saw this it does happen here occasionally.)

I have also started using the Simply Charlotte Mason web-site organizer. I used to think the $10/month was too much, but after seeing it recommended by Christy at A Common Shepherdess, I decided to sign up for the 30-day trial. I figured if I used it for those 30 days, it would be worth the money (seeing as I've never stuck with any organization method that long - I am so ADD at times). I did and it is! I love it. It's easy to see daily assignments and check them off throughout the day. If I forget something, I can go back later and do it. Easy-peasy.

Another advantage to this method is that I get a break from the paper monster that threatens to take over my home. :)

This Could be a Real Bummer

Ruth told me today that her face feels "itchy" after eating fruit. I asked her how long this had been happening and she said for "awhile". She used to think it was normal. (!!!)

I did some research and found that most people that have fruit allergies also have pollen allergies. She definitely has those.

So, we are headed to the allergist tomorrow morning.

This girl loves fruit (really, really loves it), so removing it from her diet will be very painful. Would you say a prayer that this is not serious?

UPDATE: We saw the allergist today. We got a prescription for an epi-pen and prednisone for an emergency situation. Ruth got blood drawn for that type of allergy test. If it doesn't show the results we expect, we'll have to do the skin test. She cannot have any fruit until we go back in two weeks and get the results.

Happenings

The latest...

I took Robert on a Cub Scout camping trip this weekend. It went okay until the rain started Saturday night. The thunder and lightning lasted 4 hours! Thankfully, Robert slept through most of it. We got 6 inches of rain. At 5 am I found more than 3 inches of that rain in our tent. I had forgotten to close the bottom zipper on the door. (I'm smart that way.) Ugh. We were dry because we were on a blow-up mattress, but just about everything else was soaked. I decided then and there we were headed home. So we packed up and left. My rain poncho split down the front while loading the car, so I got soaked and filthy. It was so good to get home and be warm and dry again.

I found out this weekend that somebody is using my personal information (name, address, phone number) to create and forge checks. Not on our account, thank goodness, but I am getting the bounced check notifications and am having to deal with that. Identity theft is no fun, let me tell you.

We will be having more than 25 people at our house on Thanksgiving Day. I think it's going to be a great day, but I'm beginning to be stressed about cleaning my house and things like that. I'm trying to concentrate on thankfulness, and not on impressing everyone with my spotless home. :)

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday!

Rhonda

Don't Forget to Make Your Nominations!

The deadline for nominations at Homeschool Blog Awards is Saturday, November 17th. Don't forget!!

It Must be All Those Weekly Reports

That's the only reason this makes any sense whatsoever.




(And am I the only person who immediately thinks "Wile E. Coyote - Su-per Ge-nius"?)

HT: The Common Room

Cat Alarm Clock

I found this very funny. We have two very silent cats. One of them, however, has been known to come meow in my ear very loudly in the early hours of the morning if her food bowl is empty. I'm pretty sure she would take it this far if I didn't get up. LOL

HT: Accidental Blogger

Weekly Report - November 5-9

Science

We studied sea turtles this week. We learned that the leatherback turtle can get as big as 9 feet long. That just astounds me. For an activity, we drew a life-size model of this mammoth turtle on our driveway. Both of my kids fit inside it! (You may need to click on the picture to see the turtle. I had a hard time getting it to show up in a photo.)

Math

I had gotten behind in grading math papers. I caught up this week and discovered that Ruthie is really having problems with multiplication facts. So, she spent this week correcting math papers and drilling multiplication. She hates drill, so this was not a good math week for her.

Art

We did another project from our fall art pack that I bought. I (again) want to highly recommend this if you're craft challenged like me. She has sold out of fall packs, but is currently working on a winter one that will be available in January. Hmmm... I guess that means I'm on my own for Christmas crafts. Bummer.

Ruthie painted fall trees using warm watercolors. Robert was not interested in this, but he did make the origami dog.

Language Arts

We are not continuing our use of Bravewriter's Arrow. I discovered that it's just too unstructured for me. Grammar and writing do not come to me instinctively. I have to work at making sure my children get enough of this and are learning it correctly. The Arrow is just not enough for me to feel confident in this area.

So, we are back to BJU for writing. I did decide to try CLE for grammar (still trying to simplify this subject). I gave them the placement test and ordered the first couple of light units to try it out. Hopefully those will come this week.

Geography

I wanted to share a new notebook I made. This one is for our U.S. geography study. I had to divide it into separate notebooks because my comb binding machine doesn't allow for more than 60 or so pages in a notebook. (I want to upgrade to a better one before next school year.)

There are dividers for the different sections of states. Each state has a map (Uncle Josh's Outline maps) and a coloring page with state bird and flower (links for those found in this post).

I love our notebooks. They keep everything organized and help tame the paper monster.

Motivation

The threat of having to clean a toilet is very effective in getting a certain boy to do his math.

Google Notebook

I recently discovered Google Notebook. I'm still discovering the full functionality of this feature, but I figured out a use that is coming in very handy for me.

I use our online library catalog all the time to check if our library has books and request them. I often need books for our history studies and need them particular weeks. One feature I wish our online library had is an ability to save lists of books I will need to reserve at a future date. I am often misplacing my list of what the library has and then forget to request the book.

Enter Google Notebook! I made a notebook for library books. I copied the URL for the book search result and add it to the notebook. In the comment section of the entry I put the name of the book and the week I will need it. Ta-da!

This makes my life simpler and it's nifty neat-o, too. :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

I haven't mentioned it here, but I am part of the Homeschool Blog Awards team. I am posting there twice a month and will be assisting with all that's involved in making the whole process run smoothly.

I'm mentioning it now because nominations start TODAY! Make sure you head over there and nominate your favorite homeschool blog. There are a lot of different categories and there will be some great prizes.

Make sure your favorite blog gets the recognition it deserves!

Weekly Report: Oct. 29 - Nov. 2

We had an unusual week. We spent Monday getting back on schedule, then threw it out the window the rest of the week to work on scouting activities.

Why scouting activities? Well, Robert is at the Webelos level and is working to finish everything up by February. There are quite a lot of things that we are falling behind on, so I decided to take a few days and work on his requirements. Most of them are educational. It was a real hodge-podge of activities, but there was learning going on and it was really a lot of fun!

Ruth also worked on scouting badges. She joined a 5th grade Junior troop this year, even though she is in 4th grade. We are working at home on badges that the older girls earned last year.

Math

This was not a part of badge work, but we did do a lesson every day.

Science

Robert gave an example of producer, composer, and decomposer of a food chain. We got the worksheet from Enchanted Learning.


We did an expirement from our Zoology 2 (ocean creatures) study that involved latex gloves, vaseline, and ice water. Can you guess what this was representing?

Health

Ruth studied food labels for nutrition information.

We studied basic first aid information. We also met with a friend of mine who is an R.N. to go over "hurry cases". This covers badge work for both kids.

Writing

Robert wrote a letter to Lego asking why Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will not be available on Gamecube. He also wrote an email to a friend.

Ruth wrote an advertisement for a healthy food (drawings also count as art).

Art

Robert used our computer to make 6 different designs. (click on this image to enlarge it and see if you can see what would be my favorite design. :) )


We used our watercolors (finally!) to make a color wheel. Pretty elementary principles of art, but the kids had fun. We did discover we need more practice with watercolors, though. :)

The kids made seals for their ocean boxes. Robert's seals (mother and baby) are going to go inside the box so that his killer whale can chase it. (he's such a boy!) Ruth made a sea lion that will be on top of her box (and out of danger).



This was a great week. We had gotten in a real rut and none of us were enjoying our school days. Frustration levels were high and tempers were short. This was a welcome break. I feel rejuvenated and ready to get back to our regular schedule next week.

The Antithesis of the Weekly Report

I think I should just list all the things that did NOT get done this week, rather than all the things that did. That list would be longer. Also, you could see all my good intentions, and that should count for something, right? Right?

Yeah, I didn't think so, either.

Please excuse me. I'm working through some things right now. I think I'm finally getting my head on straight, though, so next week should be much, much better.

I hope.

Temptation...

Thy name is Halloween Candy.

Fall is Here!

Finally, after weeks of 90 degree weather, we've had a cold front come through. Highs are in the low 70's (yes, that's a cold front here!) and lows are in the 40's. We've actually turned on the heater! It's such a nice, refreshing change.

With cooler weather, I'm back to drinking my morning coffee. I miss it during the warmer weather, but I just can't bring myself to drink a hot drink when it's hot and humid. Blech.

Here's my favorite mug, parked beside the computer, filled with coffee and all sugared and creamed up. Yum! (and yes, I do like quite a bit of cream in my coffee, thank you very much)

Sisters

This is dedicated to my sister, Liz, who moved to Nashville on Friday. I love you and will miss you!

Busy Days

Do you ever have a time in your life when you're so busy, you feel like you're meeting yourself coming? I am going through that right now. I feel that I am spending my days treading water, but never really getting my head above it.

Between school, church, orchestra (Griff's and the kids), cub scouts, girl scouts, and oh-yes-let's-not-forget-the-home, I am just about all done in. (Would somebody please remind me why the Arrow of Light is so important?)

I'm not complaining. Life is good. Busy, busy, but good. It does mean, however, that some things are going to have to slide. This blog is one of them. Oh, I'm not really going anywhere. I'll still be posting. But things, like this week's "weekly report", are not always going to happen. (believe me, you're not missing anything this week)

I am going to go to bed now. It's only 10:40. If I try very hard, I may actually get to bed before 11:00. Woo-hoo! :)

BTW, my back is better. I still get the occasional twinge, but it's greatly improved.

Free Mark Kistler Video Drawing Lessons

We are big Mark Kistler fans here. Ruthie took a week-long class with him this summer and had a blast. She had been wanting to learn how to draw 3-d and he was able to teach that to her. If you ever have the opportunity to send your children to one of his classes, I highly recommend it. He encourages parents to stay for the class, so you will get a free art lesson yourself. :)




The exciting news: Mark Kistler has put some drawing lessons on Youtube. There are 8 minutes long and FREE! He currently has 6 lessons available.

As we all know, Youtube can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a very scary place for children. Mark Kistler put these on Youtube for adults to have easy access to his drawing lessons. He strongly recommends (as do I) that you do not let your children have access to these without 100% parental supervision. So, can you take 8 minutes out of your day to have an art lesson with your child? I think so. :)

I'm Going to be MIA for a Few Days

I've done something to my back. I don't know what, but it's causing a pinched feeling in my back and pain down my right arm. Being on the computer aggravates it, so I'm going to be off until it gets better. I'll be checking my email, but that's it.

See you soon.

Weekly Report - October 8-12

(A slideshow with pictures is at the end of this post.)

Science

After having the kids work on a lapbook for the past few weeks, and listening to the grumbling, I have given them up. As much as I would love for my children to be interested in making those cute mini-books and assembling them into one overview of our science study, it's not going to happen. It was time for me to let go of the fantasy and return to what works - notebook pages. They actually like making these, so that's a good thing.

We made our first ocean animals for the ocean boxes. It was our first time using Sculpey clay and I helped them with shaping the animals. I plan on being more hands-off next time.

Robert made a killer whale and Ruth made a dolphin. Unfortunately, our dolphin had a tragic accident (AKA Robert dropping it) and lost its nose. We will be making a new dolphin soon.

Language Arts

I blogged in my previous post about switching to using the Arrow for our grammar, dictation, and writing. Grammar and dictation went well, but I'm not so sure about the writing. I may need something with more step-by-step instructions that I am getting with this. I'm going to stick with it through the month, so I'll have to see what the final result is.

History

We read about monks in history this week. For a project, we made illuminated letters. I have seen several versions of this project, but I liked the instructions in Hands-on History the best.

We also checked out the Leaves of Gold web-site. They have a lot of information about illuminated manuscripts and how they were made. When the kids made comments about how long it was taking to color their letters and borders, we talked about how their work compared to the work done in the middle ages. We also discussed that only the wealthy owned books, and even they only owned a few. Ruth mentioned that she can't imagine a home not filled with books. Nor can I, my dear.

Fine Arts

We listened to Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. This is a favorite piece of Griff's so we've heard it before, but I am trying to teach the kids the names of pieces and composers.

We have a new picture from our Cassatt study - Children Playing at the Beach. I've also seen it titled Two Children at the Seashore. Can I say again how much I love this artist?

Hymn and folk song didn't happen... again. I need to get all the music on one CD. I think that will make it easier.

Books Read

Robert

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla

Ruth

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• She's also about half-way through Heidi. I loved that book as a child.

(Can anybody tell me how to underline text in html?)

Latin

We are on lesson 3 of Prima Latina. Ruth is especially loving this. I'm not sure why, but she gets a real thrill out of it. They are also really picking up on the whole concept of Latin roots in our language. They are usually able to think of at least a couple of English words for each Latin word we learn. Since I want them to learn Latin for vocabulary purposes, I'm very happy about that.

A New Schedule

When we began this school year, we moved to a more Charlotte Mason approach. We are using a schedule combining Year 1 and 2 of Ambleside Online. However, even that schedule was not enough for me. I looked at the list of books we would be missing and started adding more to the schedule. Well, that has led to overload. So, I am letting go of my obsession with checking all the boxes and making some changes.

The biggest change (to me, at least) is dropping Rod and Staff English. It was taking too much time and I am not convinced we need to be hitting grammar that hard at this age. It was a difficult decision (I just love that program), but I finally decided to try something else for awhile. We will be using the sample lesson from Bravewriter's Arrow. It covers some grammar, literary elements, dictation, and a writing exercise. It is 4 weeks long. At the end of the lesson, I will decide what to do from there. We may stay with the Arrow or we may go back to Rod and Staff, but at a much more relaxed pace. We may try something else. I don't know yet.

I have also dropped Fifty Famous Stories Retold (an AO selection I added in) and Our Island Story (which is scheduled). Doing history 4 days a week (sometimes 5) was too much. We are enjoying both of these books, but I decided they weren't crucial to our school day. A Child's History of the World covers the parts of OIS that I don't want to miss (King Harald, William the Conqueror, etc.) at a much faster pace. Both of these books have been added to our book basket and I am pretty sure the kids will keep reading them on their own.

With everything that we dropped, I have been able to put aside a whole day each week for projects. Scheduling things in the morning makes it much more likely that it's going to be done. As much as I want the afternoons to be spent in projects and other enrichment activities, it doesn't usually happen. It always seems that we are either running behind, or something has come up (doctor appointments etc.).

Now that I have probably explained way too much about my thought processes, here's the unveiling. Ta-da!


(A big "thank you" to Tami for all her help and advice as I worked through this. She's a true gem.)

Mosaic Boxes

We finished our mosaic boxes this weekend and I wanted to show them off. I think the kids did a great job on them. (Please keep in mind that none of us have ever done any type of mosaic work before, unless you count construction paper.)

When I first showed the kids what we would be doing, Robert was not interested. However, when I mentioned he would get to break up the tiles into smaller pieces with a hammer, he was in.

We worked outside because the tile adhesive we were using said that we need to be in an area with cross-ventilation. I didn't want to take a chance, so we worked out on the back porch. This was definitely one of those times I wish we had some sort of table out there.

First, we divided up the tiles. I felt it would be best to decide on colors before beginning. (I'm smart that way.)


Then the hammering began. I think this was one of their favorite parts.


A practice run to get a feel for how many tiles would be needed...


Gluing... With all the warnings on the bottle, I was a little worried about this. No problems were encountered, however.

Both children lost patience with the small pieces after awhile, so we filled in the middle with whole tiles.


Gluing is finished. Now we just have to wait for them to dry before grouting.


I did the grouting. I think that's my own impatience coming through. :)

Here's a picture of the finished boxes. The kids were anxious for me to finish with the picture-taking so they could start using them. I think they are very proud of the work they did. I know I am.

Weekly Report - Oct. 1-5

Math

I just had to share these photos of my children doing their math assignments this week.

Ruthie decided she needed to work under the table one day.


Having a kitty join you makes a torturous subject go much more smoothly.

Grammar

Really, what can you say about grammar that is interesting? (no offense intended if it's the highlight of your day) However, I had to laugh at Ruthie's response to an assignment. She was to write 3 exclamatory sentences that would be said upon receiving a gift from a grandparent. (Don't you just love Rod & Staff?) Ever the quirky child, she wrote:

Grandmother, thank you for the lovely bucket of mud!

For the record, her grandmother has never given her a bucket of mud. She does, in fact, buy my children nice gifts, and too many of them.

History

We studied the Byzantine empire this week. This led very nicely into looking at Byzantine mosaics on the internet. This led to a natural choice of doing mosaics for art this week. I like for the children to do projects that are actually useful and/or decorative and not fodder for the trash can within a couple of weeks. So, I headed to Michael's and got the following supplies. This is still a work in progress, but I will post a picture when it's done. They are turning out great!

Reading

I bought this pretty basket yesterday and set up my book basket. I love how it looks. However, pretty is as pretty does, so let's see how useful it turns out to be. :)

In Other News

Ruthie found a good way to get out of cello practice and lesson this week. Have the fingerboard come off your instrument! It's currently in the shop.

Robert, after two weeks of his best viola lessons ever, was rewarded with 30 minutes of video game time (typically off limits during the school week). You will be happy to know that, after owning the game for 5 years, he has finally beaten Super Mario Sunshine. All is right with the world.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

(Okay, I had to stop and go look up the lyrics because I couldn't remember the next line. For the record, it's "Turn and face the stranger", whatever that means.)

I am in the process of overhauling our schedule. Some things are not working. Others, while they are working, are taking too much time. I'm going to be adding some things and removing others. I'll post the final schedule when it's done.